Linda Darlene Emerson (Rush)
Nov. 5, 1950 – Feb. 13, 2023

Linda Darlene Emerson was born Nov. 5, 1950 in Eureka to Harvey Dee Emerson and Darlene Whelihan. Linda was the first born of five brothers — Larry, Timothy, Steven and Michael Emerson and Anthony Whelihan — and one sister, Donna Porter.

Linda attended Eureka City Schools and graduated from Eureka High School in 1968. Linda loved vacationing with family in Junction City and Willow Creek. She also loved to go four-wheeling and to the beach.

Linda and Andy Cudney met in June of 1986 and were inseparable for the next 37 years.

Linda has three children Gary Rush, Tracie Smith (Rush) and Jason Cudney. Linda also has seven grandchildren — Samantha , Maddie, Mason, Carson Rush, Tyler and Tavin Smith and Addysen Cudney. She also has three great-grandchildren — Ellie, Emma and Khloe.

Linda and Andy spent lots of time going on trips to Gold Beach for vacations. Aside from her family Linda was most proud of her 1949 Studebaker pickup.

We will hold a small ceremony Wednesday March 15 from 1-3 p.m. at Sanders Funeral Home.

HUMBOLDT TODAY: Good job, people! Humboldt Today viewers correctly picked this year’s Academy Awards Best Picture. As reward, Humboldt now boasts the most-accessible beach in Northern California. We’ll tell you about that, plus a round up of all the winter weather-related drama and more on today’s newscast with John Kennedy O’Connor.

FURTHER READING: 

• Clam Beach Just Became Wheelchair-Friendly Says County, Which Says it Believes That the County Park is Now the ‘Northermost Accessible Beach in California’
• FLOOD WATCH: Excessive Runoff Fills Creeks and Streams; Eel River Forecast to Overrun Its Banks at Fernbridge
• SUPES PREVIEW: Several Offshore Wind-Related Actions Up For Consideration During this Week’s Meeting

HUMBOLDT TODAY can be viewed on LoCO’s homepage each night starting at 6 p.m.

Want to LISTEN to HUMBOLDT TODAY? Subscribe to the podcast version here.

Press release from the County of Humboldt:

The County of Humboldt has completed the installation of a beach access mat along the beach access corridor at the northern parking lot of Clam Beach County Park, and the mat is now open for public use.

The beach access mat allows individuals with disabilities to travel from the accessible parking lot to the high tide line of the beach. With the installation of the beach access mat, it is believed that Clam Beach County Park is now the northern most accessible beach in California.

“It is incredibly important that we as the county provide accessible public spaces, and I couldn’t be more proud that this project is ready for use,” said Fifth District Supervisor and Chair of the Board Steve Madrone. “It took years to research and install this beach mat, and seek and respond to public feedback, and I would like to thank everyone involved for their work to bring this project to fruition. The result of that work will allow all Humboldt County residents and visitors to experience Clam Beach County Park, which is such a gem within the state.”

This project is a part of the county’s continued efforts to provide recreational access for all users to the greatest extent possible and bring all county-owned and leased facilities into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The Humboldt County Administrative Office’s ADA Compliance Team and the Humboldt County Department of Public Works’ Environmental Services Division coordinated these efforts with several oversight agencies, including California State Parks, the California Coastal Commission, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, to ensure natural resources in and around the coastal project area were protected while providing improved beach access to beach visitors.

About the Accessibility Mat

The mat consists of a series of removable and adjustable woven polyester segments designed in a way that allows for accumulated sand to sift through the mat surface. A removable access mat design was selected for use at Clam Beach in an effort to reduce environmental and aesthetic impacts and to provide more flexibility for adjustments in response to changing environmental conditions. The beach mat is five feet wide, and its length will vary between approximately 400 to 500 feet based on the environmental conditions at Clam Beach. The mat will require ongoing maintenance and adjustments to account for high tides and blowing sands.

The mat provides users of commonly used mobility devices, such as wheelchairs, walkers, canes, and crutches, the ability to travel from the northern parking lot at Clam Beach County Park through the established trail corridor to the high tide line. The mat is also designed to allow horses and emergency vehicles to cross and travel.

“Tri-County Independent Living (TCIL) was excited to try out the mats during a public comment and demonstration day back in February of 2022,” said TCIL Assistive Technology Coordinator Juliannah Harris, who is low vision. “The uneven terrain of typical beaches makes me fall. For the first time ever, I felt secure and safe independently walking on the beach. This unique mat system will really benefit the disability community. Tri-County Independent Living is very pleased to see this transformational project move forward to completion and look forward to future inclusive projects in Humboldt County.”

This project is an example of the County of Humboldt’s commitment toward providing equal access to all county programs, services, and activities regardless of an individual’s ability. Please visit humboldtgov.org/ADA to learn more.

# # #

With local rivers already swollen from three weeks of above-average rainfall, Humboldt, Del Norte and Trinity Counties are all under an active flood watch this morning as continued downpours are projected to flood rivers, creeks, streams and low-lying areas.

Cue the ark jokes.

A “severe” flood warning has been issued for this region. | NOAA

As you can see in the graph above, the Eel River is forecast to reach flood stage at Fernbridge sometime tonight and continue rising through Tuesday, finally peaking at above 23 feet late Tuesday or early Wednesday. A “severe” flood warning has been issued for the Eel River Valley, lasting from 5 a.m. tomorrow to 1 p.m. Wednesday.

A Special Action Advisory is being issued to people who own livestock in all low-lying areas adjacent to the Eel River. The National Weather Service says “appropriate action” should be taken to protect livestock.

Of course, the forecast can change quickly, so keep tabs at this link to stay up-to-date.

The City of Rio Dell issued a flood warning this morning, saying portions of State Route 211 between Fernbridge and Ferndale could go underwater, along with much of the Eel River Valley, including areas northwest of Loleta and the western portion of Cannibal Island Road.

This deluge looks a lot like the conditions we saw six years ago, when the Eel crested at 23 feet, turning the Eel River Bottoms into one big lake, nearly submerging Duluwat (aka Indian Island) and turning the Arcata Bottoms into a soggy bog.

We’ll be keeping tabs on local conditions as the water levels continue to rise. 

If the latest public polling is to be believed, Republican voters in California, like party faithful across the country, are swinging rapidly toward favoring Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in next year’s presidential primary.

But if the attendees at the latest California Republican Party convention — a gathering of the GOP’s most dedicated activists, volunteers and local officials that took place over the weekend in Sacramento — are anything to go by, former President Donald Trump is still unquestionably the man to beat as he seeks his party’s nomination for a third time.

“Nobody comes up to me and says, ‘What about DeSantis?’” said Deborah Baber, a delegate from Ventura County, as she hawked MAGA Republican buttons outside a Saturday lunch banquet headlined by the new House Speaker (and Bakersfield’s favorite son) Kevin McCarthy, the weekend’s marquee event.

Clad in a stars-and-stripes “Make America Great Again” jumpsuit and flashing a red, white and blue rhinestone Trump purse, Barber’s unmissable display of support for the former president was a common motif at the convention. Trump’s name and slogan were everywhere to be seen, on signs and apparel and campaign paraphernalia; DeSantis, who it should be noted has not yet declared that he is running for president, not so much.

Outside the entrance to the convention center downtown, in a light drizzle, Ed Malik stood beside a handwritten poster declaring that “Trump is the ONLY anti-war candidate” and handing out a four-page packet warning that “Ron ‘DeSanctimonious’ is not what his manufactured persona suggests he is.”

Though not a delegate to the convention, Malik and a friend had driven up from Alameda County as volunteers for the Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee, to shore up support for a man that they worried might get pushed aside by party insiders after his contentious loss in the 2020 presidential election.

“It’s going to be a battleground,” Malik said.

By the only real metric we have at this point, roughly a year before Californians weigh in with their primary ballots next March, that is certainly the case.

The UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies released a poll in late February that found DeSantis leading a list of 11 possible candidates among GOP voters in the state, with 37% support, ahead of Trump with 29%. That was a reversal from six months earlier, when Trump led DeSantis by nearly the same margin.

The spiked barbs that DeSantis regularly trades with California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, over policy and hair care routines, has only solidified his standing among conservatives in the Golden State over the past year. He made a brief swing through Southern California last week, including a sold-out event at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library to promote his new book.

By more unscientific measures, however, it’s not even close — at least here among the most committed and hardcore Republicans in the state.

Take the grassroots straw poll that Orange County delegate Evelyn Nunez Jones and Los Angeles County delegate Rudy Melendez were organizing at the convention by handing out business cards with a QR code link to an online survey. Early results, with about 150 participants, showed Trump running away with three-quarters of the vote, they said, ahead of a field including DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley (who is running for president) and former Congress Member Liz Cheney (who has not announced a campaign).

Or consider merchandise sales. Marty Miller’s “My Campaign Wear” booth in the convention hall featured Trump 2024 flags and powder blue t-shirts with “DeSantisland” written in the Disney script above a map of the United States — a nod to the Florida governor’s star-making battle against the corporate giant — alongside “Let’s Go Brandon” baseball caps and hot pink buttons proclaiming “hot chicks vote Republican.”

Miller estimated that Trump gear was outselling the DeSantis offerings 85% to 15%. He had loaded up on DeSantis items because his supplier, who is based in Florida, “thought the DeSantis stuff would go really big out here. And it hasn’t.”

Among those shopping was Napa County Republican Party chair Doris Gentry, sporting a Trump lanyard for her convention credential and a sparkling American flag brooch. She remained loyal to the former president, she said, because “we know what he did, so we know what he will do.”

Like many other Trump supporters in attendance, she did not dislike DeSantis. But she urged him to hold off running for president and continue to build his power in Florida, which would make him an even more powerful contender four years from now.

“When he went to the bathroom” at the Reagan Library, she joked, “Reagan whispered, ‘It’s not your turn. Wait until 2028.’”

“Then in 2028,” she added, “he’ll be jet fuel.”

Heather Matsen, a volunteer for the Sacramento County GOP who was staffing a neighboring booth, agreed that Trump’s experience made him best suited to take on President Biden next year and then fix the direction of the country in a second term.

“We’re not going to have four years to find his footing,” Matsen said. “He learns from his mistakes. So where (the) house didn’t get cleaned before, he’s going to clean house right away.”

Mingling with other delegates outside committee meetings, Mark Rizk of Los Angeles County was a rare DeSantis supporter. He had purchased a t-shirt (“Ron DeSantis For President: The Courage to be Free”) earlier in the day, which he proudly pulled out his bag to show off.

DeSantis is “someone who has a lot of the same great ideas that Trump has, but not the baggage that he has,” said Rizk, who began drifting away from the former president after the Jan. 6 “fiasco” where rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to help Trump overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Rizk said he has been making a strategic case to his fellow Republicans: that DeSantis would do better among independent voters, while nominating Trump again would only alienate them and hurt down-ballot GOP candidates in 2024. It did not seem to be resonating at the convention.

“They have vested their heart in it. Their heart is so into Donald Trump,” he said. “They’re basically going to throw the party under the bus for his ego.”

But there’s still a year — and a formal campaign — left to change those hearts and minds. Rizk sees it in Biblical terms, with DeSantis as the Israelite leader Joshua.

“Moses led the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt, but God anointed Joshua to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land,” Rizk said. “He will be our Joshua leading us into the Promised Land.”

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

For the last decade Teague O’Shea has been in and out of college. Now, at 42 years old, he is trying again. Furthering his education was important to O’Shea, who had been working as an apprentice electrician for his local water district, but the rising cost of college made him question its worth.

“California is a really expensive place to live and I’m already paying for college,” O’Shea said. “I’m paying $463 for three classes and I’m like, ‘That’s fine.’ But I can’t imagine going full time and paying more. I can’t imagine having to spend more money on books — I would not be happy.”

O’Shea is working towards his associate’s degree in the Water Systems Technology program, which prepares students for careers in wastewater management or drinking water distribution and treatment. In the program, at least one major cost is covered: O’Shea’s courses all use free non-copyrighted materials created by the college itself. That takes some of the pressure off O’Shea, he said, so he can focus on his goal of becoming a certified water plant manager.

“I feel like I’m being prepared to re-enter the industry,” he said.

California college students spend on average $938 per year on textbooks and materials, according to the California Student Aid Commission’s 2021-2022 Student Expenses and Resources Survey.

One idea under consideration by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office is to fund community colleges to produce their own textbooks. The system must decide how to spend $115 million in state funds set aside to reduce the burden of textbook costs. Every community college will receive $20,000 to design zero-textbook-cost programs and an additional $180,000 to implement them. Some colleges will also get larger, competitive grants.

Colleges could spend the money on anything from publishing their own textbooks to using free, publicly available textbooks — known as “open educational resources” — created by professors at other schools. They could also simply give some students money to buy traditional textbooks.

“So we really see textbooks as almost a symptom to a bigger issue around students’ financial stability, right? Especially the students we serve that come into our colleges, many of them are already at a deficit without sufficient financial resources,” said Rebecca Ruan-O’Shaughnessy, vice chancellor for educational services and support at the Chancellor’s Office.

Many community colleges already have some classes that use open educational resources, often marked in course catalogs as “zero textbook cost.” Yet those courses often fill up fast, Ruan-O’Shaughnessy said, and students aren’t always aware they are being offered.

“The statewide approach will help standardize and streamline the process for students to get into class with low instructional materials cost.”
— Jerry Vakshylyak, a student at Mission College in Santa Clara serving on the California Community Colleges’ newly created textbook-costs task force

Overall, open educational resources have so far failed to build the same level of traction that traditional publishers have. Even at College of the Canyons, one of the colleges most invested in the approach, only 35% of professors use open educational resources. And while many colleges give some eligible students grants for textbooks, they usually have to jump through administrative hoops to get them.

Ruan-O’Shaughnessy said the Chancellor’s Office wants to gather data about zero-textbook-cost courses across the state’s 115 community colleges, identify successes that have so far been isolated to individual campuses or regions, and create a long-term, sustainable model.

Jerry Vakshylyak, a student at Mission College in Santa Clara serving on the California Community Colleges’ newly created textbook-costs task force, still remembers having to spend $300 for a French textbook two semesters back.

“It was just absolutely insane for an online copy for that French textbook,” said Vakshylyak. He now makes sure to enroll in classes with zero-textbook-cost options. “I’m in mostly ZTC courses, primarily because of how much of a burden it could be with textbook costs,” said Vakshylyak.

Vakshylak said that kind of help should be available to all students.

“The statewide approach will help standardize and streamline the process for students to get into class with low instructional materials cost,” he said.

Students have found creative ways to access academic materials. Since 2009, the website Z-library has been a hub for free scholarly journals and full college textbooks. But last year, the federal government shut it down, alleging copyright infringement. The online library is now back up but makes users log in where they are redirected to a personal domain.

East Los Angeles College student Rene Jimenez rents his textbooks, which he said saves him hundreds of dollars each semester. “Renting makes so much sense when you’re getting your general requirements done because you rarely need the textbooks for other classes,” Jimenez said. “It’s way cheaper most of the time, so it alleviates some financial stress, which is important when everything these days is so, so expensive.”

Some advocates say the recent focus on materials cost is an opportunity for a larger shift in the textbook business, and that colleges across the system should create their own cache of materials and textbooks that best serve the students that need them.

“It’s just a different way of thinking about how we use information resources and education, thinking about it more as part of the infrastructure on which we teach and learn, as opposed to products that you purchase from a publisher,” said Nicole Allen, who as a student organized a campaign around textbook costs before becoming head of communications at the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, a nonprofit pushing for more open educational resources. “And, I think that mindset shift is a really big opportunity in California.”

A 2023 Student Public Interest Research Group report found that every dollar invested in open educational resources saves students $10 to $20. One of the benefits of investing in open educational resources is the continued use of them after the initial investment, Allen said.

“There’s such a compelling case for investment in these types of resources. Because if you can build them, you can use them,” said Allen. “And others can use them, too, unlike traditional textbooks where if you buy a one-year subscription to a digital textbook, you have to buy that subscription again the next year, and the next year and the next year.”

Tyler Reed, senior director of communications at McGraw Hill, one of the largest textbook publishers in the nation, says the onus is on all involved in higher education to deliver course materials with value that students can afford.

“We believe there is room in the higher education ecosystem for all course materials options, including open educational resources. Let’s give institutions, instructors and students the broadest range of choices,” Reed said in a statement to CalMatters.

College of the Canyons has created a new department to focus on finding, adapting, authoring and publishing open educational resources. Current and former students are employed by the college to blend and splice free online texts into cohesive works to meet their needs, said James Glapa-Grossklag, the college’s dean of educational technology, learning resources and distance learning.

“So we really see textbooks as almost a symptom to a bigger issue around students’ financial stability.”
— Rebecca Ruan-O’Shaughnessy, vice chancellor for educational services and support at the Chancellor’s Office.

Additionally, if faculty members decide they need to write new material to fit the needs of their class, College of the Canyons will provide a stipend.

The campus has seen some success with this model. But adoption has been slowed by the fact that the college offers a lot of specialized disciplines, such as occupational therapy, welding and auto mechanics, for which no online educational resources currently exist, Glapa-Grossklag said.

“There is definitely a rift between the humanities and STEM majors,” said Kyra Karatsu, a College of the Canyons graduate working on the project. “There’s all these resources for majors like communications or history. But when you start to look at classes like math, or even chemistry, there’s not a lot of resources there.”

One reason is the lock that the traditional textbook industry has on the market in those disciplines, said Mark Healy, the open educational resources coordinator for the Foothill-DeAnza Community College District, another early adopter of free textbooks. Math textbook publishers often bundle together online textbooks with other resources like online testing, he said, charging students hundreds of dollars for access codes that must be renewed if they take the class again.

Healy, who is also a psychology professor, has made all his classes zero-textbook-cost. “It’s really great to tell students that they don’t have to pay anything beyond tuition to take the class,” he said.

###

Story and González are fellows with the CalMatters College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. This story and other higher education coverage are supported by the College Futures Foundation.

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

I blame it on the tequila, my 80-year-old body not having the same devil-may-care response to alcohol as my 18-year-old one did. Plus, there was no email or Amazon back then.

TheCulinaryGeek, Creative Commons.

Had I not had a hearty pre-prandial “Tequila Sunrise” that sunset, I’m convinced I wouldn’t have fallen for K’s heartfelt appeal:

Barry, I need to get I need to get an Amazon E-Gift Card for a friend of mine who is diagnosed with stage 4 mesothelioma cancer, She lost her only daughter to the disease (COVID-19).it’s her birthday but I can’t do this now. I tried purchasing it online but unfortunately, I got no luck on that. Wondering if you could help me take care of this through Amazon online? and I’ll reimburse you once I get back home. Please let me know so I can provide you with her email.

Thanks,

K…

Sure! Happy to help! (And yes, I was sober enough to confirm that the return email address was indeed K’s, so of course it was legitimate). Sucker that I was, I said yes, how so I send it?

You can have it done via https://www.amazon.com/ Amazon-eGift-Card-Logo/dp/ … Total amount needed is $200 here is her address… Please make sure the delivery date is Now and I want you to write Happy Birthday in the message space. Please let me know when it’s done. So, I’ll let her know it’s from me. Please forward me the confirmation once you’re done. Thanks, K…

Having sent the $200 out of my Amazon account (and thinking I was a real mensch) I settled down, only to hear from K that her friend hadn’t received the money. Amazon says it takes less than 10 minutes to post to their Gift Card site, and this was half an hour later. That’s odd…does Amazon think I’m a grifter??? The nerve! I went to bed thinking I’d figure it out in the morning, I just needed to reassure Amazon that the whole thing was on the up and up, only to wake to this:

From: gc-account-alert@amazon.com

Hello,

We believe that an unauthorized party may have accessed your account.

To protect your information, we have:

— Disabled the password to your account.
— Reversed any modifications made by this party.
— Canceled any pending orders. You can ignore any confirmation emails that you received for these orders…

My brain works better at 6 a.m. than it does at 8 p.m., especially when not burdened down by the effects of low oxygen/high alcohol content. Well duh, of course it’s a scam! Look at the wording! Look at the odd typo! Look at…. “How could you—you the arch-skeptic, mistersciencewriter—how could you have possibly have fallen for this? It’s crying out “SCAM” in every line!” offered my not-so-sympathetic wife. “What were you thinking?” “I wasn’t,” I said. Feeling stupider by the second.

The real K (of course!) knew nothing of all these shenanigans, as she told me on the phone that morning, her email account having been hacked. She assured me she’d change her address and password pronto, and Barry—word to the wise—be on the lookout for future scammers! As if I needed that advice. After all, I’m a sophisticated and smart online user, I’d never be taken in by some amateur scammer, well would I?

Note to self: Tequila and online requests don’t mix, ok? Ok, got it!